IWS Documented News DAILY POSTINGS

IWS Documented News Service

_______________________________

Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

________________________________________________________________________

 

Congressional Research Service (CRS)

 

Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress

Alison Siskin, Specialist in Immigration Policy

Liana Sun Wyler, Analyst in International Crime and Narcotics

February 19, 2013

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34317.pdf

[full-text, 75 pages]

 

Summary

Trafficking in persons (TIP) for the purposes of exploitation is believed to be one of the most

prolific areas of contemporary international criminal activity and is of significant interest to the

United States and the international community as a serious human rights concern. TIP is both an

international and a domestic crime that involves violations of labor, public health, and human

rights standards, and criminal law.

 

In general, the trafficking business feeds on conditions of vulnerability, such as youth, gender,

poverty, ignorance, social exclusion, political instability, and ongoing demand. Actors engaged in

human trafficking range from amateur family-run organizations to sophisticated transnational

organized crime syndicates. Trafficking victims are often subjected to mental and physical abuse

in order to control them, including debt bondage, social isolation, removal of identification cards

and travel documents, violence, and fear of reprisals against them or their families. According to

the International Labor Organization (ILO), some 20.9 million individuals today are estimated to

be victims of forced labor, including TIP. As many as 17,500 people are believed to be trafficked

into the United States each year, and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen children are

victims of trafficking within the United States.

 

Human trafficking is of great concern to the United States and the international community. Anti-

TIP efforts have accelerated in the United States since the enactment of the Victims of Trafficking

and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, P.L. 106-386) and internationally since the passage

of the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, adopted in 2000.

Through the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, Division A of P.L. 106-386) and

its reauthorizations (TVPRAs), Congress has aimed to eliminate human trafficking by creating

international and domestic grant programs for both victims and law enforcement, creating new

criminal laws, and conducting oversight on the effectiveness and implications of U.S. anti-TIP

policy. Most recently, the TVPA was reauthorized through FY2011 in the William Wilberforce

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA of 2008, P.L. 110-457).

The United States engages in anti-TIP efforts internationally and domestically. The bulk of U.S.

anti-trafficking programs abroad is administered by the State Department, United States Agency

for International Development, and Department of Labor. In keeping with U.S. anti-trafficking

policy, these programs have emphasized prevention, protection, and prosecution (the three “Ps”).

Prevention programs have combined public awareness and education campaigns with education

and employment opportunities for those at risk of trafficking, particularly women and girls.

Protection programs have involved direct support for shelters, as well as training of local service

providers, public officials, and religious groups. Programs to improve the prosecution rates of

traffickers have helped countries draft or amend existing anti-TIP laws, as well as provided

training for law enforcement and judiciaries to enforce those laws. However, it is difficult to

evaluate the impact of international U.S. anti-trafficking efforts since few reliable measures of

TIP have been identified.

 

Domestically, anti-TIP efforts also include protection for victims, education of the public, and the

investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenses. The Departments of Justice (DOJ), Health

and Human Services (HHS), and Labor (DOL) have programs or administer grants to other

entities to provide assistance specific to the needs of victims of trafficking. These needs include

temporary housing, independent living skills, cultural orientation, transportation needs, job

training, mental health counseling, and legal assistance. Both HHS and the Department of

Homeland Security (DHS) administer public awareness campaigns on recognizing human

trafficking victims. In addition, within the United States at the federal level, the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) in DOJ, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in DHS both have

primary responsibility for investigating and prosecuting traffickers.

 

Some of the issues surrounding U.S. policy to combat human trafficking include whether there is

equal treatment of all victims—both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (USCs), as well as

victims of labor and sex trafficking; whether current law and services are adequate to deal with

the emerging issue of minor sex trafficking in the United States (i.e., the prostitution of children

in the United States); and whether U.S. efforts to stem human trafficking internationally are

efficacious especially with the use of the TIP report and aid restrictions.

 

In addition, the current budget situation has heightened interest in Congress on the funding and

oversight of current efforts to fight TIP, to make sure that the grant programs authorized under the

TVPA as amended do not duplicate efforts and that funding is being used in the most efficacious

manner. Obligations for global and domestic anti-TIP programs, not including operations and law

enforcement investigations, totaled approximately $109.5 million in FY2010. The TVPRA of

2008 authorized $191.3 million in global and domestic anti-TIP programs for FY2011.

 

Authorizations for the grant programs under TVPA expired at the end of FY2011. On February

12, 2013, the Senate passed S. 47. Among other things, S. 47 would modify some of the grant

programs, expand reporting requirements, create new criminal penalties for trafficking offenses,

and reauthorize appropriations from FY2014 through FY2017.

 

See also CRS Report R41878, Sex Trafficking of Children in the United States: Overview and

Issues for Congress, by Kristin M. Finklea, Adrienne L. Fernandes-Alcantara, and Alison Siskin;

and CRS Report R42497, Trafficking in Persons: International Dimensions and Foreign Policy

Issues for Congress, by Liana Sun Wyler.

 

Contents

Overview.......................................................................................................................................... 1

Definitions ....................................................................................................................................... 1

Trafficking in Persons ................................................................................................................ 1

Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons .................................................................................... 2

Forced or Compulsory Labor .................................................................................................... 4

Child Soldiers ............................................................................................................................ 5

Scope of the Global TIP Problem .................................................................................................... 5

Traffickers and Recruitment Methods ....................................................................................... 5

Global Estimates ........................................................................................................................ 7

Sex and Labor Trafficking ................................................................................................... 8

Child Trafficking ................................................................................................................. 8

Continuing Global Challenges................................................................................................... 9

Overview of U.S. Foreign Policy Responses ................................................................................. 10

Foreign Country Reporting and Product Blacklisting ............................................................. 11

Foreign Aid and International Anti-Trafficking Projects ......................................................... 11

Foreign Aid Restrictions .......................................................................................................... 12

Conditions on Country Beneficiary Status for Trade Preference Programs ............................ 12

Preventing U.S. Government Participation in Trafficking Overseas ....................................... 12

Trafficking in the United States ..................................................................................................... 15

Sex Trafficking of Children in the United States ..................................................................... 15

Estimates of Human Trafficking in the United States ............................................................. 16

Estimates Into the United States ........................................................................................ 16

Estimates of Sex Trafficking of Children in the United States .......................................... 17

Response to Trafficking within the United States .......................................................................... 18

Immigration Relief for Trafficking Victims............................................................................. 19

T Nonimmigrant Status ..................................................................................................... 19

Continued Presence ........................................................................................................... 23

U Nonimmigrant Status ..................................................................................................... 23

Aid Available to Victims of Trafficking in the United States .................................................. 25

Health and Human Services Grants................................................................................... 26

Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime ......................................................... 28

Department of Labor ......................................................................................................... 29

Domestic Investigations of Trafficking Offenses .................................................................... 29

Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center ....................................................................... 31

Policy Issues .................................................................................................................................. 32

TIP Awareness Among U.S. Diplomats ................................................................................... 32

Credibility of TIP Rankings ..................................................................................................... 32

U.S. Aid Restrictions: A Useful Tool? ..................................................................................... 33

Debates Regarding Prostitution and Sex Trafficking .............................................................. 34

Distinctions Between Trafficking and Alien Smuggling ......................................................... 34

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Global Anti-TIP Programs ........................................... 35

Issues Concerning Immigration Relief for Trafficking Victims .............................................. 35

Stringency of T Determination .......................................................................................... 36

Tool of Law Enforcement or Aid to Victims ..................................................................... 37

Victims’ Safety .................................................................................................................. 37

Funding and Authority to Assist U.S. Citizen and LPR Victims of Trafficking ...................... 38

Resources for Trafficking Victims’ Services ..................................................................... 39

Oversight of Domestic Grants ................................................................................................. 39

Legislation in the 113th Congress ................................................................................................... 40

Title XII of S. 47 ...................................................................................................................... 40

Trafficking Provisions in Other Titles of S. 47 ........................................................................ 45

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 46

 

Figures

Figure B-1. Anti-TIP Obligations by Agency: FY2005-FY2010................................................... 58

Figure B-2. International Anti-TIP Obligations by Region: FY2005-FY2010 .............................. 62

 

Tables

Table 1. Number of Suspected Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims by Location ................ 18

Table 2. T-visas Issued: FY2002 through FY2012 ........................................................................ 21

Table 3. U Visas Issued FY2009-FY2012 ..................................................................................... 24

Table 4. Current Law and S. 47 as passed by the Senate: A Comparison of Authorizations

of Appropriations ........................................................................................................................ 43

Table 5. H.R. 2830 and S. 1301: Comparison of Authorizations of Appropriations ..................... 68

Table B-1. Current Authorizations to Implement TVPA, as amended ........................................... 55

Table B-2. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, as Amended,

Authorizations and Appropriations, FY2001-2011 ..................................................................... 57

Table B-3. Authorizations and Appropriations for Grant Programs to Assist Victims of

Trafficking in the United States: FY2001-FY2012 .................................................................... 58

Table B-4. Anti-TIP Assistance through the Foreign Operations Budget ...................................... 60

 

Appendixes

Appendix A. Anti-Trafficking Administrative Directives and Legislation .................................... 47

Appendix B. Domestic and International TIP Funding ................................................................. 55

Appendix C. TVPA Reauthorization Activity in the 112th Congress ............................................. 63

 

Contacts

Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 70

Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... 70

 

 

________________________________________________________________________

This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.